Gold Tooth Aloes

Tabitha wrote to ask whether her gold tooth aloes plant had the same medicinal properties as aloe vera.

I have a question, - can I eat the Gold Tooth Aloe (Aloe Nobilis) plant? I just bought it at Home Depot. I plan to have it grow a lot, then eat the stems.

I had received an aloe plant from my aunt for my birthday. I loved it. It had a thick gel (sticky gel) that worked wonders almost overnight on sores, but the winter frost took it. I do not know what kind of aloe plant it was and I have asked my aunt and she doesn't know the specific type or name either.

I just went out and bought another aloe plant, the gold tooth aloe plant (or aloes nobilis) because to me, this one looked like the one I had before.

The difference is this gold tooth aloes is more watery, not gel-like when cut open. I want to take it back if it does not have healing properties and get the correct kind, that does have healing properties for wounds or sores. So my question is, does the gold tooth aloes work the same and have healing properties as the one my aunt gave me, and if not, what kind should I look for? I would love to know if this gold tooth aloe will do the trick or not.
Thank you
Tabitha

My Answer:

Hi Tabitha,
I want to thank you for your questions. Checking this type of aloes out has opened my eyes to something I did not know yet. You see, I've never seen or had a Gold Tooth Aloes before.

It does look quite similar to aloe vera, but I find that it is of the ornamental kind and is not really meant to be a medicinal plant.

It's too bad that your lovely birthday gift froze. I had that happen to most of my 45 plants that I brought to my new home in 2007. What a shame.

Now, anyone who wants can put up answers there, so we may have to take that with a grain of salt. I have read before that there are anywhere from 300-600 varieties of the aloes family and most of them have some medicinal value, but that aloe vera has the most.

I have researched for companies that make products with aloes in them, and it appears that they all prefer to use aloe vera. Since they would likely research the properties of the various kinds in their labs before they make millions of bottles of juice, ointments, lotions, etc. with aloes in them - I think it is safe to assume that aloe vera is the best plant for healing.

Incidentally, I noticed that the Gold Tooth Aloe has orange or redish flowers. My aloe vera flowers have been yellow, although the style of blossoms is the same.

Can you EAT Aloe Vera?! (free email course)

So Tabitha, to answer your question directly, it appears that this lovely aloe does not have the same healing properties of the aloe vera. If you are able to get and care for both, I'd go for it!

By all means, keep looking for an aloe vera to replace the one you got from your aunt for your birthday. There are various stores and nurseries that carry them, and of course, if you keep asking all the people you know or meet, someone is bound to say, "Oh, I've got one you can have." Or, that their aunt or grandma has lots of them, and would be willilng to give, or sell you one. Aloe vera plants are really more common than we think at first.